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Kilonova Seekers

·2 mins

Kilonova Seekers is an innovative, real-time citizen science project that invites members of the public to find cosmic explosions in data from the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) survey. Volunteers are shown the science, template, and difference images that researchers inspect to identify transients, and are asked if a real transient is present.

We launched Kilonova Seekers in July 2023, and since then it has led t 81 discoveries of transients, and gained nearly 3300 registered volunteers in total - with the reach of the project likely being signfiicantly more. Many of these discoveries have been followed up and classified as supernovae by colleagues.

A landmark discovery from the project was GOTO0650, a peculiar dwarf nova which was discovered by Kilonova Seekers, and followed up with the help of volunteers using telescopes at Las Cumbres Observatory through our education program, and from an AAVSO Alert Notice

Kilonova Seekers has been the subject of a number of press releases since launch - as well as being adopted by a number of university education/outreach programs in the UK and Finland.

Responsible use of ML in Kilonova Seekers #

As part of doing citizen science in a transparent, responsible, and ethical way, I drafted a policy to govern our usage of ML in Kilonova Seekers, among the first projects to put such a policy out. You can read more here: Responsible ML policy

Project Site
Project Paper

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